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22 May 2016

China & The Great War - A Symposium

The
war in Europe is a matter that does not concern us, the Chinese people, and as
Your Majesty knows the world is full of people with greater talents than we
have.

However,
as the ancients have said, a model emperor would be a brave warrior and
merciful: however, if one loves war for its own sake and treats human lives as blades of grass, you will invoke
the anger of the gods.

We
Chinese came to Europe as neutrals, our aim is to make a paltry living; however,
the war made our journey to Europe somewhat less than peaceful.

An
examination of the world situation now shows that within the universe we are
all one family, and a virtuous ruler would seize this opportunity to put
righteousness before profit, to follow the will of the gods and the wishes of
men, to stop the evil of the world and together with other nations create a new
world. A virtuous ruler's name will be remembered for ten thousand generations,
so why not halt your troops and selectan auspicious location to build a palace [of peace] where all the
world's powers could meet and create a peace that will last ten thousand years.*

This letter to
Kaiser Wilhelm II was written by a Chinese labourer named Yuan Chun. No one
knows if it was actually ever sent to the Kaiser. The text quoted above was
transcribed into a notebook which is preserved in the archives of the Imperial War Museum in London. But as a voice from the time it tells us something of the
attitude of an ordinary Chinese man who was working behind the Allied front
lines in the closing years of the First World War. He was one of some 135,000
similar men who worked as contracted labourers, mainly in France – but also in
other parts of the global conflict zone. They didn’t fight – at least not in
the sense of seeing active combat, they weren’t soldiers – but they did help
the Allied war effort by digging trenches, filling sandbags, loading and
unloading supplies from ships and trains; as well as undertaking more skilled
labour, such as repairing tanks and artillery. After the war, completing the
full terms of their original work contracts, they stayed on into the early 1920s and
played a vital part in the recovery efforts – they repaired roads, cleared the
battlefields of unexploded ordnance, collected the bodies of the dead, dug the
neat rows of graves in the vast cemeteries; indeed, some were skilled stone
masons who carved the distinctive white headstones. And yet now, almost one
hundred years on, they are almost all but forgotten.

Very little mention
has been made of them or their undoubtedly important contribution to the Great
War in the official record or the many histories of the conflict which have
been written in the years since 1914-1918. Indeed, until very recently I could
only find one book which looked at the British Chinese Labour Corps (CLC), and
that book was privately published and so hard to find. But happily, perhaps
with the approach of the Great War’s centenary, over the last few years a
number of works have begun to appear (some of these new titles are listed at
the end of this piece). Other efforts are also in process with the aim of raising
a greater awareness of the involvement of the Chinese labourers, as well as initiatives
to ensure that recognition is suitably preserved thereby commemorating the
hardships they endured and the great sacrifices they made – many of the
labourers were laid to rest in war cemeteries across the globe (particularly in
France), looking identical to the graves of the soldiers their work supported.

The Imperial War Museum, London

Earlier this
month, on May 4th in fact, I attended a one day symposium at the
Imperial War Museum, organised by Anne Witchard of the University of
Westminster, entitled: China & The Great War. A number of academics spoke on different aspects of the Chinese
labourers (and the British Chinese Labour Corps in particular), sharing
resources and giving insights into new topics of current research, with
interesting and challenging discussions following on from most of the
presentations. Paul Bailey (University of Durham) began the day with a paper
entitled ‘From “Coolie” to “Transnational Agent”,’ looking at contemporary
discourses which have centred on the Chinese labourers within China, attempting
to place these in the context of broader global labour movement studies of the
period. The Chinese involvement with the First World War came at a pivotal
moment in China’s national history, with its transition first from a monarchy
to a republic, then through civil war to the socialist republic that it is today (with exception of the island of Taiwan, which still remains under the
political control of that first Republican Government). Hence the significance
of this key moment in China’s history subsequently remains a real problematic
for China’s national discourse even to this day.

Paul Bailey’s
talk paired neatly with a later talk given by Xu Guoqi (Hong Kong University),
and sparked a lively debate in the questions afterwards, asking “what is
China?” and “what is Chineseness?” – questions which form the focus of Xu’s
current research. As already noted, the Great War came at a crucial time when
China was in the process of redefining itself in response to pressures from
within, but also overwhelmingly due to pressures imposed from without as the
forces of Western imperialism, which had been increasingly encroaching on
China’s sovereignty since the 19th century, were now pushing China
almost to the brink of break-up and dissolution. Hence too, the significance of
the date on which this symposium was being held – May 4th, with its
historic, student-led uprising on that date in 1919. If China needed to reshape
itself in the wake of the Great War, particularly given the disappointing
outcome for China of the Treaty of Versailles, in order to properly join the
global community of nations on an equal footing, how should it define itself? –
In that sense, Chinese society at the time was asking itself – what essentially
is this unique notion of “Chineseness” and how should it inform China’s new
‘geopolitical’ identity?

Elisabeth Forster
(Oxford University, China Centre) continued this theme with her examination of
the “New Culture Movement” which arose from the events of May 4th
1919, largely shaping the “brand of modernity” which we find very much embodied
in the China of today. Examining the role of contemporary newspapers in
bringing together the students and academics of the May 4th Movement
with the popular embrace of the ideas informing the New Culture Movement raises
interesting questions concerning the connectedness of culture and politics at
the time, perhaps highlighting how Confucian notions coincidentally became
allied to the popularisation of Marxism and the rise of ‘plain language’ (baihua) in ordinary Chinese society.

Other talks given
as part of the symposium largely focussed upon the British Chinese Labour
Corps. Established by the British Government in the closing years of the
conflict, with the approval and encouragement of the then Chinese Republican
Government, the British War Office recruited a force of some 96,000 labourers
who were transported to Europe and Africa to work under contract ‘safely’
behind the lines to support the war effort, thereby freeing-up able bodied
servicemen to concentrate on the business of fighting at the Front. By no means
soldiers, paradoxically these men were drilled and lived under army rules and
strict discipline in closed camps under the charge of British military
officers. As such, and despite such a narrowly regimented work system, these
men still retained their own sense of self-worth and often collectively
organised themselves to take action when needed to assert their rights, for
instance through organised protests or strike action (a fact which has since
proved problematic to those who might wish to portray them wholly as victims of
Western imperialism).

Mauriuz Gasior
(Imperial War Museum) gave an introduction to the IWM’s photographic archives,
both official and unofficial, relating to the CLC – prompting helpful discussions
over some of the descriptive captions accompanying the documentation of some of
these images regarding the activities and details they depict.

Laura Spinney
(independent science writer & journalist) gave a fascinating insight into
the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 (which killed more people globally than each
of the two World Wars put together), examining how this might or might not have
been connected to the movement of US soldiers and/or the Chinese labourers and
the camp-life to which they were each largely confined as perfect containment
and breeding grounds for Spanish Flu.

After which
Gregory James (University of Exeter, now retired) gave a surprisingly exuberant
analysis of the statistical realities of the number of Chinese fatalities which
occurred. Using the enormous figures frequently claimed in the media as his
launching point he then proceeded to elaborate the documentary records which
belie the realities concerning the fatalities which occurred among the Chinese
labourers during the war and in the years immediately after when they were still
under contract. He has done this by means of an exhaustive trawl through the
official War Office records, correlating them alongside other primary sources,
such as the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ship’s records,
and the like, in order to produce an impressively detailed and comprehensive
computerised and searchable database. This dataset reveals that the number of
Chinese who were killed or died by other causes during the conflict aren’t
anywhere near as high as some of the inflated claims of around 10,000-20,000
(even 30,000 in one instance) with the actual estimate being closer to somewhere around 5000-6000 – although,
given the gaps, potential errors, and mismatches in the records, ultimately the
real figure will probably never be known. This database is clearly an important
historical resource, but sadly at present it is not publicly accessible; during the final
Q&As the audience expressed the hope that this resource might eventually
find a suitable home at some point in the future, so that this valuable dataset
isn’t lost.

Initially I was
drawn to the topic of this symposium as the result of a tangent to my own on-going research. I’m very interested in the British Consular Service in China as well
as the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and many of the personnel of both institutions
‘joined up’ in order to contribute to the war effort by serving with the CLC.
Their language skills and their cultural knowledge of China was seen as a key
element in the smooth functioning of the CLC battalions, with many of them
teaching fellow British Officers basic Chinese language, as well as liaising
with and organising the labourers themselves. Several of the British consular
officials I have been researching, including Louis Magrath King, served with
the CLC in France. His father, Paul Henry King, who was based at the Maritime
Customs office in London at the time, even facilitated and organised the
sending of Chinese musical instruments to the CLC labourers in France for their
recreational amusement, hoping to help them feel less far from home. Hence,
this study day helped broaden my knowledge of the topic and gave me a number of
insights and pointers to resources which might be of future use if I am able to
expand and make something concrete out of the few things I’ve found so far in
the official archives. Who knows – watch this space, as they say!

Two films were
shown during the course of the day. The first, which was screened in the middle
of the event (just after we returned from a fantastic buffet lunch), gave some
background to the ‘Ensuring We Remember’ campaign which hopes to establish a
permanent memorial to the Chinese labourers, as well as efforts and initiatives
to promote education and better awareness.

The symposium was
rounded off with a short documentary film about a play, The Forgotten of the Forgotten, which the theatrical creative
team at ‘Moongate Productions’ hope to develop, similarly to shine a greater
light on the Chinese labourers, their crucial contribution to the Great War and
the sacrifices entailed. See a trailer for the play here.

The symposium was
an interesting and enjoyable event which was clearly very useful to all those
who attended it. Warm thanks are due to Anne Witchard. I’ve attended a number
of conference events which she has organised, particularly her ‘China in Britain’ series at the University of Westminster, and I’ve always come away
from her seminar events with masses of useful notes, piles of new contacts, plus
heaps of new ideas and inspiration for my own research. See the 'Translating China' website.

To mark the centenary of the Great War
Penguin have published a series of ‘Penguin Specials’ which are short books
examining various themes and topics relating to China and the War of 1914-1918.
I’ve read quite a few of these and they do make very good and highly readable
(accesible rather than heavily academic) introductions. Find out more about the
series here.

Click on any of the images above to follow a link to its source, if not my own photo.